NSW Govt urged to crackdown on HSC exploiters

Board of Studies figures reveal round one in five private school students in NSW accessed HSC special provisions.

ABC

There are calls for the State Government to crack down on private schools who encourage their students to boost their Higher School Certificate (HSC) marks by exploiting disability provisions.

Figures from the New South Wales Board of Studies shows one in three Newcastle Grammar students who sat last year's HSC exams applied for special assistance.

A quarter of all Year 12 students at Sydney's Loreto Kirribilli and St Andrew's Cathedral School also used the provisions, while seven other independent schools had at least one in five students apply.

Commonwealth figures show three quarters of all disabled students attend public schools.

NSW Greens MP John Kaye says it is difficult to believe so many private school students need the extra help.

"It just does not add up," he said.

"Where you have a school which has one third of its students claiming special needs it's very hard to believe that that particular exclusive, non government school had a series of accidents where a third of its students were injured.

Mr Kaye admits there were some public schools that had similar rates of students accessing disability provisions, but he says those schools had many students with special needs.

"When you look at the list of wealthy private schools that are getting more than 20 per cent of their students with special provisions, none of those schools advertise on their website they have any interest in special needs students.

"It's very clear that there are schools trying to use the system to advantage their students unfairly."

Newcastle Grammar Principal Alan Green denies the school takes advantage of the system.

"Yes our parents are aware (of the provisions) and we make them aware of the provision, but this issue was not raised at Newcastle Grammar School last year," he said.

"We have to treat each group of students individually.

"Last year's group of students had some special needs and we catered it. My staff work extremely hard to provide them with an equal playing field with students who didn't have disabilities."

Mr Green says the Board of Studies makes the final decision as to which students are given disability provisions during the HSC.

He says all applications are assessed independently of the school.

"They have to get professional support for their application," he said.

"If they have for example an issue with their handwriting that has to be supported by professionals which are normally outside of the school.

"So we may go to an OT, we may go to other professionals in the community to support the application."

The Association of Independent Schools has slammed the Greens' position that private schools are exploiting the system.

"I don't believe that children in independent schools are advantaged in the HSC by having these special provisions," he said.

"I am sure that if you spoke to the president of the board he would say exactly the same thing, there's a legislative requirement that children are treated the same and I think John Kaye's comments are absolutely insulting."

"There could be some schools that let parents know and that would be a very responsible thing to do," he said.

"We take the pastoral care of our students as a very important part of the education service we offer and so if a parent seeks assistance in any way then the schools would respond but that doesn't mean the children get any advantage."

State opposition health spokesman Andrew McDonald believes more students in government schools would claim disability provisions if they had better support.

"This support may include occupational therapists, speech therapists, psychiatrists or paediatricians," he said.

"The family can't pay for this help and so the government needs to step up to the plate and provide the assessments that are needed so these children get the care that they deserve."